VC Investments Spike in Q2

NEW YORK — US companies posted double-digit increases in second-quarter venture capital investments from a year earlier, pushing funding to its highest level in 13 years.

Companies raised $13.8 billion from 917 venture capital deals during the quarter, a 21% increase from the first quarter and a 60% increase from a year earlier, according to a report from Dow Jones VentureSource. The average deal size was $6.25 million, a $1.75 million increase from the first quarter.

"The uptick in spending is likely due to a culmination of factors that have investors seeing more prospects, such as the healthier exit opportunities triggered by the IPO market opening up and a healthy M&A environment," VentureSource senior research manager Valerie Foo told EE Times.

It seems like companies are finally feeling confident enough to break into the piggy banks that they have been hoarding for years now. This should be a good sign for the industry, but according to some of what I have been reading it is a sign of the beginning of the end for the long-running bull market in stocks. Apparently corporations are particularly good at spending money when things that they are spending on are getting expensive.

Does this correspond with an increase in internal R&D spending as well? That would be another sign of this.